Thermaltake accused of ripping off multiple rivals, stealing designs

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When it comes to CPU coolers, cases, and other PC peripherals, Thermaltake has been a major presence for over a decade. The company’s reputation as a case designer is more mixed. While its designs are distinctive, early products like the Xaser and Kandalf were an un-ironic celebration of clashing plastic colors, cheap paint, and brilliant LEDs. Now, a manufacturer has publicly leveled serious charges at the firm. In a public letter posted to Facebook, CaseLabs has claimed that Thermaltake directly ripped off its own designs — and it’s got the invoices to prove it.

Before we dive into the specifics of the claim, we should note Thermaltake has a number of suspiciously similar products on the market and CaseLabs is far from the only company involved. LegitReviews has a round-up of Thermaltake hardware that practically plays the “spot the difference” game with rival manufacturers. From cases to controllers to fans, Thermaltake’s designs are often suspiciously “inspired” by the work other companies are doing.

CaseLabs, however, goes farther, alleging that Thermaltake’s lead case designer, Shannon Robb, openly attempted to photograph its own designs before buying chassis and shipping them to Thermaltake HQ. Fast forward a year, and Thermaltake is introducing similar cases based on CaseLab’s previous prototypes. Fast forward a year after that, and ThermalTake is launching yet another set of hardware that copies CaseLabs designs. CaseLabs is understandably unhappy about the entire affair, given that it’s a small vendor with a fraction of the larger company’s resources and effort.

In this comparison, the Thermaltake Suppressor is on top, the Fractal Design is on bottom.

The image above is drawn from two videos — one launch video for Thermaltake’s Suppressor F51 and one for the Fractal Design Define R5. It’s not hard to see the similarities, not just between the products, but between the look and feel of the video itself. We reached out to contacts in the industry, several of whom told us they’re scarcely surprised by the allegations. Thermaltake, apparently, does not enjoy a great reputation for quality or original design.

The counter-argument to this is that there are only so many ways to build a great ATX chassis. The problem is, that’s fundamentally not true. From the elegant styling of Lian Li to the distinctive sweeping handlebars of the Coolermaster Cosmos line, to the distinctive vertical orientation on Silverstone’s Raven, multiple manufacturers have found ways to create distinct style elements, either through materials engineering, form factor support, or cooling design.

Before the illegality lemmings swarm in, no one is arguing what Thermaltake has done is illegal — but in the computing industry there’s a generally accepted line between “We adopted the same standards that everyone is using” and “Hey, we stole your stuff.” Thermaltake may have crossed that line, and as much nostalgia as I hold for the company — the very first aftermarket CPU cooler I bought was an original Thermaltake Golden Orb — its case designs seem to have blurred the line between imitation and outright appropriation.

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